In Time (previously titled Now and I'm.mortal)^[3] is a 2011 American dystopian science fiction action film starring Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Cillian Murphy, Olivia Wilde, Alex Pettyfer, Johnny Galecki, and Vincent Kartheiser. The film, written, directed and produced by Andrew Niccol, was released on October 28, 2011. Met with mixed critical reviews, it performed well at the box office.

Plot[link]

By 2161, genetic alteration has allowed humanity to stop aging at 25 but people are required to earn more time after turning 25 or die when their accumulated time runs out. 'Living time', which can be transferred among individuals on body-contact, has replaced money and its availability is displayed on an implant on people's lower arm. When that clock reaches zero, one dies instantly. Society is divided by social class living in specialized towns called 'Time Zones'. The poor live in the ghettos of Dayton, where youth predominates, and must work each day to earn a few more hours of life, which they must also use to pay for everyday necessities. The rich live in the luxurious city-like town called New Greenwich, in which the middle-aged and elderly predominate, though they look young because they have stopped aging at 25 years old. They drive fast electric cars, and can live for centuries.

28-year-old factory worker Will Salas (Justin Timberlake) lives with his mother Rachel Salas (Olivia Wilde) in the ghettos. One day, Will saves rich 105-year-old Henry Hamilton (Matt Bomer) from suffering a time-robbery assault in a bar where he flaunts his time around buying people drinks. Hamilton is attacked by Fortis (Alex Pettyfer), the elderly British mobster boss of a middle-aged gang called the Minutemen. Will leads Hamilton to safety, where Hamilton says to Will, "For few to be immortal, many must die", as there is essentially enough time for everyone to live a full life, but it is stockpiled for the rich to become immortal. An upset Will argues that no one should die before their time naturally ends so that others may live, upon which Hamilton describes how he no longer even desires life, in saying "[y]our mind can be spent, even if your body is not. We want to die. We need to."

Later that night, Hamilton transfers 116 years to the sleeping Will, keeping only five minutes for himself, which he uses to go and sit on a ledge on a bridge. As his time expires, Hamilton falls into the river below. Will arrives too late to save him, realizes he has been filmed by a nearby surveillance camera, and flees the area. Resident police force, the Timekeepers, have various theories as to his death. A young timekeeper, Timekeeper Jaeger (Collins Pennie), correctly assumes Hamilton had "timed out", a.k.a. killed himself, but a middle-aged veteran Timekeeper, Raymond Leon (Cillian Murphy), is convinced he was murdered by a Dayton resident.

Will visits his friend, Borel (Johnny Galecki), and gives him 10 years of time, one year for each year of their friendship. Will waits for his mother at a bus station, only to discover that she didn't have enough time to pay for her usual bus ride after the price suddenly increased. He rushes down the street to find her. They encounter each other on foot, and as she runs and leaps into his arms, her time expires before her son can help her and she dies in his arms. Remembering what Hamilton told him about the inequity of the time system, Will decides to seek revenge. He leaves for New Greenwich, with over a century on his clock. Upon arrival, he enters a casino, where he meets an old millionaire, time-loaning businessman Philippe Weis (Vincent Kartheiser) and his daughter Sylvia (Amanda Seyfried). Sylvia becomes interested in Will after a tense gambling table showdown where Will beats her father in poker with only one second to spare on his clock, winning 1,100 years in the process. She invites Will to a party at her father's mansion.

At the mansion, Will is apprehended by Leon, who confiscates all of his time, spare two hours. Will then escapes taking Sylvia hostage. Returning to the ghetto with her, he drives into an ambush of Fortis, who, in disappointment to find that the unconscious Will was in possession of Hamilton's time but lost it, steals most of Sylvia's, only failing to take the last half hour as the approach of the Timekeepers forces him to leave the scene. Will returns to consciousness and gives Sylvia some of his remaining time so they can return to his old neighborhood. They first visit Borel to retrieve some time Will gave him earlier, only to find out from Borel's grief-stricken wife, Greta (Yaya DaCosta), that he drank himself to death with 9 years on his clock. Sylvia pawns her jewelry for the meager price of 2 days. Finding themselves a shelter, Will calls Weis demanding a 1,000 years' ransom for Sylvia, to be distributed to the people of the ghetto. Leon traces Will's location from his phone call, and heads to Dayton in pursuit.

The following day, as Will prepares to release Sylvia, he discovers that Weis did not pay the ransom, but Will decides to let Sylvia go regardless. Leon appears to arrest Will, but is shot in the shoulder by Sylvia. Will then transfers two hours of time to the disarmed Leon so that he is able to walk out of Dayton before he "times out". Will and Sylvia escape in Leon's car. Later, Will tells her that she still has a chance to walk away from the situation, but she decides to remain by his side, saying there is no purpose to the life she once had in New Greenwich. They begin a series of Time Bank robberies, stealing the Time Capsules which store time equivalents and distributing them to the poor, getting a bounty of 10 years on their heads. Fortis eventually tracks down Will and Sylvia a second time, and challenges Will to a Time Fight. Will dominates the fight by using the technique he learned from his late father, then shoots the remaining Minutemen while Fortis dies in the time fight, his time transferred to Will.

Will and Sylvia realize their previous efforts were futile, as the rich have the power to simply increase the cost of living in the ghettos to maintain the status quo. They succeed in stealing a million years from Weis' private headquarters in a Time Capsule, escaping all resistance on their way out and reaching Dayton. Upon arrival, Leon crashes his car into Will's, but Will is able to hand the Time Capsule to a young girl who then distributes the time among the people. Leon eventually catches up with Will and Sylvia outside the city, holding them at gunpoint. Will jokingly asks Leon to return some of the time he previously loaned him so that they can survive until their executions, but Leon realizes that he had neglected to replenish his own time before going after them, and dies. Will and Sylvia are left with seconds to live. Will runs to Leon's car and takes his allotted time. In a scene mirroring his mother's death, Will transfers the time to Sylvia seconds before she is about to die.

Will and Sylvia continue robbing banks as part of their efforts to crash the system, now with a bounty of 100 years on their heads, while the rich attempt to cope with the sudden surge of people who now have enough time to change zones arriving from the ghettos. A news broadcast shows the factories, in which Will once worked, are no longer in action. Factory workers, now rich with Time, cross Time Zones while the Time Keepers become observers instead of enforcers.

The last scene reveals that Will and Sylvia are going to rob an obscenely huge Time Bank in order to keep disrupting the system.

Cast[link]

Production[link]

On July 12, 2010, it was reported that Amanda Seyfried had been offered a lead role.^[4] On July 27, 2010, it was confirmed that Justin Timberlake had been offered a lead role.^[5] On August 9, 2010, Cillian Murphy was confirmed to have joined the cast.^[6]

The first photos from the set were revealed on October 28, 2010.^[7] 20th Century Fox and New Regency distributed the film, and Marc Abraham and Eric Newman's Strike Entertainment produced it.^[8]

In an interview with Kristopher Tapley of InContention.com Roger Deakins stated that he would be shooting the film in digital, which makes this the first film to be shot in digital by the veteran cinematographer.^[9]

The Dayton scenes were filmed primarily in the Skid Row and Boyle Heights neighborhoods of Los Angeles, while the New Greenwich scenes were filmed primarily in Century City, Bel Air, and Malibu.

Plagiarism suit[link]

On September 15, 2011, according to The Hollywood Reporter, a suit was filed by attorneys on behalf of speculative fiction writer Harlan Ellison that the plot of the movie was based on his award-winning 1965 short-story, ""Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman". The suit, naming New Regency and director Andrew Niccol as well as a number of anonymous John Does, appears to base its claim on the similarity that both the completed film along with Ellison's story concern a dystopian future in which people have a set amount of time to live which can be revoked, given certain pertaining circumstances by a recognized authority known as a Timekeeper. Initially, the suit demanded an injunction against the film's release;^[10] however, Ellison later altered his suit to instead ask for screen credit^[11] before ultimately dropping the suit, with both sides releasing the following joint statement: "After seeing the film In Time, Harlan Ellison decided to voluntarily dismiss the Action. No payment or screen credit was promised or given to Harlan Ellison. The parties wish each other well, and have no further comment on the matter."^[12]

Reception[link]

Box office performance[link]

The film opened at #3, behind Puss in Boots and Paranormal Activity 3, with $12,050,368.^[13] It earned $136,410,501. The movie made over $172,020,095 worldwide ($37,520,095 domestically).^[2]

Critical reception[link]

The film received mixed reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 36% of 152 critics gave the movie a positive review, with a rating average of 5.2 out of 10. The website's consensus reads, "In Time's intriguing premise and appealing cast are easily overpowered by the blunt, heavy-handed storytelling." ^[14] Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 53 based on 36 reviews.^[15] CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film was a "B-minus" on an A+ to F scale.^[13]

Not all reviews were negative: Roger Ebert gave the film 3 stars out of 4, noting that the "premise is damnably intriguing", but "a great deal of this film has been assembled from standard elements".^[16]

Home Media[link]

In Time was released on Blu-ray and DVD for Home Media on January 31, 2012.^[17]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Official Trailer
• In Time at the Internet Movie Database
• In Time at Rotten Tomatoes
• In Time at Metacritic
• In Time at Box Office Mojo

Rachel McAdams
McAdams at the Berlin premiere of Sherlock Holmes in 2010
Born	Rachel Anne McAdams (1978-11-17) November 17, 1978 (age 33) London, Ontario, Canada
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2001–present
Partner	Michael Sheen (2010–present)

Rachel Anne McAdams (born November 17, 1978) is a Canadian actress. After graduating from a four-year theatre program at York University in 2001, McAdams initially worked in Canadian television and film productions such as My Name is Tanino, Perfect Pie (for which she received a Genie Award nomination) and Slings and Arrows (for which she won a Gemini Award). Her first Hollywood movie was the 2002 comedy The Hot Chick. McAdams found fame in 2004 with starring roles in the teen comedy Mean Girls and the romantic drama The Notebook. In 2005, she appeared in the romantic comedy Wedding Crashers, the psychological thriller Red Eye and the family drama The Family Stone. She was hailed by the media as "the new Hollywood it girl"^[1][2] and received a BAFTA nomination for Best Rising Star.

However, McAdams withdrew from public life in 2006 and 2007. During this time, she turned down leading roles in high-profile films such as The Devil Wears Prada. She made a low-key return to work in 2008, starring in two limited release films: the film noir Married Life and the road trip movie The Lucky Ones. She returned to prominence in 2009 with appearances in the political thriller State of Play, the science-fiction romance Time Traveler's Wife, TheThe Time Traveler's Wife and the action-adventure film Sherlock Holmes. McAdams's first star vehicle was the 2010 comedy Morning Glory. In 2011, she starred in Woody Allen's romantic comedy Midnight in Paris and made a cameo appearance in the action-adventure sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. McAdams starred in 2012's romantic drama The Vow, and will next appear in Terrence Malick's To the Wonder and Brian De Palma's Passion.

McAdams lives in the Harbord Village neighborhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She has dated both Ryan Gosling and Josh Lucas and is in a relationship with Michael Sheen. She is an environmentalist.

Early life[link]

Rachel Anne McAdams was born in London, Ontario^[3][4][1][5] and grew up in nearby St. Thomas.^[6] Her mother, Sandra (née Gale), is a nurse, and her father, Lance, is a retired truck driver and furniture mover.^[7] McAdams has two younger siblings: Kayleen, a celebrity make-up artist, and Daniel.^[8] McAdams began figure skating at the age of four^[8][9] but turned down an opportunity to move to Toronto at the age of nine for pairs training.^[8] Skating then became merely "a hobby".^[10] She competed in the sport until the age of 18, winning regional awards.^[6][11][12] She has since said that skating prepared her for physical acting, because it trained her to be "in tune" with her body.^[13]

McAdams was educated at Myrtle Street Public School and, later, Central Elgin Collegiate Institute.^[6][14] She did not enjoy school and, to avoid attending, she often pretended to be sick.^[15] Nonetheless, she played an active role in student life. In addition to playing sports, McAdams served on the student council, participated in the Crimestoppers program and was a member of the Peer Helping Team.^[6] She worked at a McDonalds restaurant during the summer holidays for three years.^[9][16]

McAdams first developed an interest in performing when she was seven and, while her parents didn't discourage her, they didn't "go out and find [her] an agent".^[17] She attended both Disney and Shakespeare summer camps as a child.^[17] From the age of twelve, McAdams appeared in Original Kids Theatre Company, London productions.^[7][18] In her late teens, she directed children's theatre productions.^[9] She was also involved in school stage productions, most notably winning a performance award at the Sears Ontario Drama Festival.^[6][19] She was inspired by a married couple who taught English and Drama respectively in Grades 11 and 12. They gave her a love for the works of Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell and encouraged her to lose her inhibitions when performing.^[19] McAdams intended to take Cultural Studies at university before being persuaded by her Drama teacher that a professional acting career was a viable option.^[6][19][20] She enrolled in York University's four-year theatre program and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts honours degree in 2001.^[18][21] While at university, McAdams worked with the Toronto-based Necessary Angel Theatre Company.^[22]

Career[link]

Rise to fame (2001–2005)[link]

McAdams made her first onscreen appearance in Shotgun Love Dolls, a 2001 MTV pilot filmed during a spring break from York University.^[17] McAdams also made her first feature film appearance that year in My Name is Tanino. The Italian-Canadian co-production was filmed in Sicily and it marked the 22-year-old actress's first time on an airplane.^[23][24] McAdams later earned a Genie Award nomination in her native Canada for her role as a teenage Wendy Crewson in Perfect Pie.^[11] Her first Hollywood movie was 2002's The Hot Chick which McAdams has described as a "huge milestone" in her career.^[15] She played a catty high school student who swaps bodies with a small-time criminal.^[11] The Los Angeles Times felt she "emerges as a young actress of much promise"^[25] while the Daily Mail described McAdams and Anna Faris as "talents to watch, but they are let down by everything around them".^[26] The film grossed $54 million worldwide.^[27] McAdams then returned to Canada to star in Slings and Arrows, a mini-series about backstage theatre life.^[28] She was written out of the second season of the program following her success in the United States.^[21] She received two Gemini Award nominations for her work on the program, with one win.^[29][30]

Tina Fey, McAdams' co-star in the teen comedy Mean Girls (2004). Fey has credited McAdams with teaching her to act for a camera rather than an audience.

McAdams' breakout role came in the 2004 teen comedy Mean Girls. The 25-year-old was cast as Regina George, a malicious teenage queen bee, and she looked to Alec Baldwin's performance in Glengarry Glen Ross for character inspiration.^[31] USA Today praised her "comic flair"^[32] while The Daily Telegraph found her "delightfully hateful".^[33] The San Francisco Chronicle felt that "McAdams brings glamour and magnetism to Regina, but also the right hint of comic distance.^[34] The film grossed $129 million worldwide^[35] and earned McAdams two MTV Movie Awards.^[36] Mean Girls later reached number 12 in an Entertainment Weekly list of the Greatest Ever High School Movies.^[37] Tina Fey, who wrote the script and co-starred in the film, has credited McAdams with teaching her to act for a camera rather than an audience: "She's a film actor. She's not pushing. And so I kind of learned that lesson from watching her."^[38]

McAdams's second role of 2004 was in the romantic drama The Notebook, a film adaptation of Nicholas Sparks's novel. She played a wealthy Southern belle who has a forbidden affair with Ryan Gosling's poor laborer.^[11][39] McAdams spent time in Charleston, South Carolina prior to filming to familiarize herself with the accent,^[40] and took ballet and etiquette classes.^[21] Filming took place in late 2002 and early 2003.^[41] Although Gosling and McAdams became romantically involved in 2005, they had a combative relationship on set.^[42] "We inspired the worst in each other," Gosling has said. "It was a strange experience, making a love story and not getting along with your co-star in any way."^[43] At one point, Gosling asked director Nick Cassavetes to "bring somebody else in for my off-camera shot" because he felt McAdams was being uncooperative.^[42] The New York Times praised the "spontaneous and combustible" performances of the two leads^[44] while Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times was won over by the "beauty and clarity" of McAdams's performance.^[45] The Chicago Tribune declared her "a real discovery" who "infuses young Allie with that radiant, breathlessly winning ingenue grace and charm that breaks hearts".^[46] The film grossed over $115 million worldwide.^[47] McAdams won an MTV Movie Award and four Teen Choice Awards.^[36][48] Entertainment Weekly has said that the movie contains the All-Time Best Movie Kiss^[49] while the Los Angeles Times has included a scene from the film in a list of the 50 Classic Movie Kisses.^[50] The Notebook has appeared on many Most Romantic Movies lists.^{[51][52][53][54]} "I'm so grateful to have a film that people respond to in that way," McAdams told Elle in 2011. "It was a big deal".^[55]

McAdams appeared opposite Owen Wilson in the 2005 comedy Wedding Crashers. They later reunited to star in Midnight in Paris (2011).

2005 saw McAdams star in three films. In the comedy Wedding Crashers, McAdams played Claire Cleary, the daughter of an influential politician and a love interest for both Owen Wilson and Bradley Cooper's characters.^[56][57] McAdams listened repeatedly to Landslide by Fleetwood Mac to prepare for emotional scenes and Wilson has said the song made her cry immediately: "It was like turning on a faucet".^[13] She trained for a sailing certification for a boating sequence because her character was said to be an accomplished sailor.^[58] Manohla Dargis of The New York Times felt McAdams "makes the most of her underdeveloped character" and "grows more appealing with every new role".^[59] Variety found her "a beguiling presence" who "actually creates a real character – a rarity for females in one of these lad-mag escapades".^[60] From a production budget of $40 million, the film grossed over $285 million worldwide.^[56]

McAdams next appeared opposite Cillian Murphy in Red Eye, a Wes Craven thriller about a young hotel manager held captive aboard a red-eye flight. Craven has said McAdams was the only actress he considered for the part.^[61] She was drawn to the relatable qualities of her character: "She was not some sweaty, tank-top-wearing, Uzi-carrying super woman".^[62] Variety found her "increasingly impressive"^[63] while Roger Ebert asserted that "she brings more presence and credibility to her role than is really expected; she acts without betraying the slightest awareness that she’s inside a genre. Her performance qualifies her for heavy-duty roles."^[64] Upon release, the film, which was made on a budget of $26 million, earned over $95 million at the worldwide box office.^[65]

A supporting role in the seasonal family drama The Family Stone was McAdams's final film appearance of 2005. The film, an ensemble with Diane Keaton, Sarah Jessica Parker, Luke Wilson and Claire Danes, gave McAdams an opportunity to play a disheveled, sardonic sister, rather than the usual "obvious" girlfriend or wife roles.^[66][67] She was eager to work with Keaton and remarked, "It’s never about line counts for me. It’s about the people I get to work with."^[68] Variety noted that "a deglammed but still radiant McAdams proves once again that she's the real deal, delivering a deliciously feisty performance".^[69] The New York Times felt that her "engaging screen presence holds your attention and sympathy despite the handicap presented by her character's personality."^[70] The film was a commercial success: it cost $18 million to make and grossed over $92 million worldwide.^[71]

Career break and low-key return (2006–2008)[link]

At this point in her career, McAdams was hailed as "the next Julia Roberts"^[1] and the new "Hollywood it girl".^[2] Vanity Fair invited McAdams, along with Scarlett Johannson and Keira Knightley, to appear on their March 2006 cover, the annual Hollywood issue. Upon arrival on the photo set, McAdams discovered it was a nude session and left. She later parted ways with her publicist who had failed to inform her in advance.^[72] Knightley later recounted, "Quite early on Rachel just said, 'No, I'm not into that.' She's a lovely girl, and I really respect her for doing that."^[73] When asked about the incident in 2008, McAdams had "no regrets”.^[74]

McAdams at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival

McAdams withdrew from public life in 2006 and 2007, taking time off to focus on herself and her family.^[2] "It was the right thing for me to do at the time," she later said.^[75] "If you want to tell stories as truthfully as possible, you have to have a normal, boring existence."^[76] During this period, the actress turned down roles in The Devil Wears Prada, Casino Royale, Mission: Impossible III and Get Smart.^[1] In February 2006, she made an once-off stage appearance in The Vagina Monologues at St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, Toronto to raise funds for V-Day.^[77] Also that year, McAdams received a Rising Star Award nomination from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts^[78] and hosted the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement.^[79]

McAdams returned to work in 2008, appearing in two limited release films. In the film noir Married Life, she played Kay, a young 1940s widow who wins the affections of two older men, played by Pierce Brosnan and Chris Cooper. In preparation for the role, McAdams studied old films, particularly those of Kim Novak.^[80] She has said the film shoot reenergized and re-inspired her and made her eager to work more often.^[75] Entertainment Weekly found McAdams "a particularly delightful vision after her two-year intermission".^[81] Variety also bemoaned her break from the big screen but felt that, despite a performance of "tender feeling", "her natural vivaciousness and spontaneity are straightjacketed" by the film noir format.^[82] The film was a box-office failure. It grossed just over $2 million worldwide, failing to recoup its production budget of $12 million.^[83]

The Lucky Ones, a story about three Iraq War soldiers on a brief road trip back in the U.S., was McAdams's second film of 2008, and she co-starred alongside Tim Robbins and Michael Pena. She trained at a real boot camp, Fort Campbell in Kentucky, prior to filming.^[84] McAdams, speaking in 2011, said that the character of Colee was "probably one of my favorite characters I've ever played."^[85] The New York Times found her "luminous as always"^[86] while Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times hailed the performance as "her coming of age as an actress".^[87] "Previously she has been seen mostly as a hot chick or an idealized sweetheart", he wrote. "Here she is feisty, vulnerable, plucky, warm, funny ... Watch the poignance of the scene when she meets her boyfriend's family."^[87] Entertainment Weekly found her "feisty, gorgeous, and as mercurial as a mood ring".^[88] The Lucky Ones is the least commercially successful film of McAdams's career as of 2012, having grossed just $266,967 worldwide.^[89]

Return to prominence (2009–2011)[link]

Robert Downey, Jr. starred opposite McAdams in Sherlock Holmes (2009). The film grossed over $524 million at the worldwide box office.

McAdams starred in three films in 2009. State of Play, a political thriller based on a BBC television series, co-starred Russell Crowe, Helen Mirren and Ben Affleck. McAdams played Della, an online reporter who investigates a possible conspiracy with a veteran print journalist, played by Crowe.^[90] As part of her research, McAdams visited The Washington Post's offices and met with politicians on Capitol Hill.^[91] Entertainment Weekly felt she was "perfectly cast as an ambitious wonkette"^[92] while The Daily Telegraph noted that "McAdams, with her lively eyes and large, expressive forehead, holds her own against Crowe. Mercifully, she avoids any temptation to play girly and demure to his grizzled alpha male."^[93] The film grossed over $87 million worldwide.^[94]

McAdams's second 2009 project was the science-fiction romance The Time Traveler's Wife, an adaptation of Audrey Niffenegger's bestselling novel.^[95][96] McAdams fell "madly in love" with the book^[97] but was initially slightly hesitant to accept the film role because Clare, the long-suffering wife, is a "character that people have already cast in their heads."^[98] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone said, "I'd watch the vibrant Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana in anything, but The Time Traveler's Wife is pushing it."^[99] The Los Angeles Times found her "luminous [yet], sadly, her facility as an actress is mostly wasted."^[100] Writing in The Chicago Tribune, Michael Phillips, in an otherwise tepid review, said of her performance: “Every scene she’s in, even the silly ones, becomes better — truer, often against long odds — because she’s in it. Her work feels emotionally spontaneous yet technically precise. She has an unusually easy touch with both comedy and drama, and she never holds a melodramatic moment hostage.”^[101] The film was a commercial success, earning over $101 million worldwide.^[102]

Sherlock Holmes was McAdams's final movie of the year. She played Irene Adler, a love interest for Robert Downey, Jr.'s Sherlock, and welcomed the opportunity to play a character who is "her own boss and a real free spirit".^[103] The elaborate corseted costumes helped her get into character.^[91][103] Variety felt her character was "not very well integrated into the rest of the story, a shortcoming the normally resourceful McAdams is unable to do much about".^[104] The New York Times stated, "Ms. McAdams is a perfectly charming actress and performs gamely as the third wheel of this action-bromance tricycle. But Irene feels in this movie more like a somewhat cynical commercial contrivance. She offers a little something for the ladies and also something for the lads, who, much as they may dig fights and explosions and guns and chases, also like girls."^[105] The film was a major commercial success, earning over $524 million at the worldwide box office.^[106]

McAdams has worked with Diane Keaton on The Family Stone (2005) and Morning Glory (2010). Keaton recommended McAdams to Woody Allen, who then wrote a part for her in Midnight in Paris (2011).

2010's Morning Glory, a comedy in which McAdams played a television producer attempting to improve the poor ratings of a morning television program, was billed as a starring vehicle for the actress.^[107] She initially felt she was unsuited to the role because "I'm not funny. So I said, 'if you need me to be funny, you might want to look somewhere else'".^[108] Roger Michell, the film's director, had a number of dinners with McAdams and persuaded her to join the cast.^[109][110] It was her second time to work with Diane Keaton, whom she has described as a mentor figure.^[111] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times said McAdams "gives the kind of performance we go to the movies for"^[112] while Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times felt she played "as lovable a lead as anyone since Amy Adams in Junebug" in an otherwise "routine" movie.^[113] The New York Post was impressed by "her gift for physical comedy",^[114] as was Variety.^[115] While The New York Times felt she "plays her role exceptionally well" and is "effortlessly likable", it called on Hollywood to give her parts "worthy" of her talent. "Ms. McAdams has to rely on her dimples to get by. She does, but she could do better."^[116] The film was a modest commercial success, grossing $58 million worldwide from a production budget of $40 million.^[117] McAdams was disappointed that the film failed to find a larger audience, remarking that "I only hear these businesspeople: 'Well, no one was sure who it was for.'"^[55]

McAdams' first film of 2011, Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, opened the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and saw her reunite with Wedding Crashers's Owen Wilson.^[118] Allen wrote the part of the shrewish Inez for McAdams, after hearing "glowing reports" from her former co-star Diane Keaton.^[107] He has said that he is "crazy about Rachel"^[119] and wanted to give her the opportunity to play something other than "beautiful girls".^[120] The film was shot on location in Paris and McAdams has said that the experience "will always have a great place in my heart."^[121] The Guardian bemoaned that she "has morphed from the sweet thing in Wedding Crashers to the dream-crushing bitch that, according to American comedies, women become once they ensnare their man".^[122] Richard Corliss of Time "felt sorry for McAdams, whose usually winning presence is ground into hostile cliché."^[123] However, the Los Angeles Times felt she "deftly handles a part that is less amiable than usual for her"^[124] and The New York Times found her "superbly speeded-up".^[125] It has become Allen's highest grossing picture ever in North America^[126] and was the most commercially successful independent film of 2011.^[127] With a production budget of $17 million, the film has grossed over $148 million worldwide.^[128] McAdams, along with six other members of the cast, received a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture nomination.^[129] Allen won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and the film itself was nominated for three other Academy Awards, including Best Picture.^[130]

McAdams's second screen appearance of 2011 was a cameo role in the action-adventure sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.^[131] The lead female role was played by Noomi Rapace. Joel Silver, the film's producer, has said that "we always intended to have a different kind of girl for each movie" in the vein of Bond girls.^[132] He found it "complicated" to persuade McAdams to return in a supporting role: "She loved being with us, but she hoped to have a bigger role."^[132] The Wall Street Journal felt "she vanishes all too soon in this overproduced, self-enchanted sequel, and so does the spirit of bright invention that made the previous film such a pleasant surprise".^[133] The Huffington Post remarked that she "exhibits far more personality and roguish charm in her few moments here than she did in all of the previous film. Freed from the constraints of being the de-facto love interest, McAdams relishes the chance to go full-villain."^[134] The film has grossed over $534 million worldwide.^[135]

[edit] The Vow and upcoming projects (2012)

In 2012, McAdams starred in the romantic drama The Vow.^[136] McAdams and Channing Tatum played a newlywed couple who try to rebuild their relationship after a car crash leaves the wife with no recollections of their marriage. McAdams was drawn to the "roller coaster" faced by her character^[137] and found it interesting that the story was told "through the guy's eyes".^[138] The New York Times stated that "the dimply and adorable Rachel McAdams" brings "enough physical charm and emotional warmth to distract from the threadbare setting and the paper-thin plot".^[139] Newsday felt that McAdams, "exuding her usual uncanny warmth on-screen", "is the real draw".^[140] However, the Los Angeles Times felt she was "wasted" in the role: "She is such an appealing actress that it's hard not to wish someone could make better use" of her.^[141] Time found the film an example of McAdams "coasting" in "unabashedly romantic" movies and asserted that "she’s a much more versatile and clever actress" than such projects would suggest.^[142] The film, financed for $30 million, was a major commercial success and became her biggest personal box-office hit - not including the Sherlock Holmes movies and the comedy Wedding Crashers.^[143] It topped the US box office and has grossed over $186 million worldwide.^[144][145]

In late 2010, McAdams worked on To the Wonder, a romantic drama written and directed by Terrence Malick.^[146][147] Her character, believed to be based on Malick's current wife,^[148] is a horse ranch worker in Oklahoma who has an affair with Ben Affleck's character.^[149] McAdams and Affleck previously worked together in State of Play. McAdams found Malick to be an "incredibly helpful" director; they discussed her character in detail and he took her on a tour of the local town, pointing out which house she would have grown up in and where she would have attended school.^[55] She has described it as "a very satisfying, unique way of shooting".^[55] The film is due to be released in 2012.^[146][150]

In March 2012, McAdams filmed Brian De Palma's Passion, an erotic thriller about a power struggle between two business executives, on location in Berlin.^[151] It is an English-language remake of 2010's Crime D'Amour.^[152] The film will co-star Karoline Herfurth and Noomi Rapace. Both McAdams and Rapace appeared in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows but did not share scenes together.^[151] There are tentative plans to premiere the completed film at the Berlinale in February 2013.^[153]

McAdams will next star in About Time, a romantic comedy written and directed by Richard Curtis.^[154] The story follows a young man, played by Domhnall Gleeson, who travels back in time and meets "the girl of his dreams", played by McAdams. Filming will take place in London, England from June to August 2012.^[154] In September 2012, McAdams is tentatively scheduled to film an adaptation of John Le Carré's espionage thriller A Most Wanted Man, directed by Anton Corbijn and co-starring Philip Seymour Hoffman.^[155][156]

Personal life[link]

McAdams lives in the Harbord Village neighborhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.^[157] She shares a house with her younger brother, although they have separate living quarters.^[158] McAdams also holds a US green card^[159] and has remarked, "I never thought I’d say this, but I actually miss L.A. when I’m not there."^[160] She practices kundalini yoga daily.^[161] She likes to garden and cook in her spare time and has said that she would open a restaurant if she were not an actress.^[158][162]

McAdams had a two-year relationship with Canadian actor Ryan Gosling from mid-2005 to mid-2007.^[163][164] They also briefly reunited in the summer of 2008.^{[165][166][167]} Following their split, Gosling described her as "one of the great loves of my life".^[168] She dated American actor Josh Lucas for a number of months in 2009.^[169] McAdams is currently in a relationship with Welsh actor Michael Sheen, whom she met on the set of Midnight in Paris in July 2010.^[170]

McAdams is an environmentalist. She ran an eco-friendly lifestyle website GreenIsSexy.org with two friends for five years, from 2007 to 2011.^[171][172] Her house is powered by Bullfrog renewable energy.^[173] She travels around Toronto by bicycle but drives when in Los Angeles because it is "a harder town to cycle in."^[173] McAdams sat on a TreeHugger/Live Earth judging panel in 2007.^[174] She was involved in Matter of Trust's 'hair boom' efforts following the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.^[175][176] In 2011, McAdams supported Foodstock, a protest against a proposed limestone mega quarry in Melancthon, Ontario.^[177][178] She is also a supporter of the Blue Planet's clean drinking water initiative.^[179]

McAdams is also involved with other charitable and social causes. She volunteered in Biloxi, Mississippi in 2005, as part of the clean-up effort following Hurricane Katrina.^[180] In 2006, she took part in the "Day Without Immigrants" demonstration in Los Angeles, protesting against the federal government’s attempts to further criminalize undocumented aliens living in the United States.^[181] She appealed for donations during the Canada for Haiti telethon in 2010.^[182] In 2011, McAdams attended the Occupy Toronto demonstration.^[177] She has worked with charities including the Sunshine Foundation of Canada,^[183][184] the Alzheimer's Association,^[185] the READ Campaign,^[186] and United Way of Canada.^[187]

Filmography[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]